Tag Archives: IF Comp 13

The Paper Bag Princess is a nice little well-made fairy-tail traditional parser game (my how the times have changed that I’ve got to make that distinction). You play a princess on her wedding day. Just before the climatic kiss a dragon swoops in, burns the castle, and steals your almost-husband. What follows is a brief journey to get him back or something. Despite its shortness, I found Paper Bag Princess enjoyable mostly because its just well crafted. There were no bugs or odd phrasings. Every noun was implemented, and off-beat verbs were accounted for. The few puzzles weren’t hard, and yet satisfying to solve. They could have been horrible if they weren’t so well clued (getting past the dragon in particular). I felt like I was gently led down the right path, while still having enough agency to feel like I was in control.

The ending was rather abrupt. That final confrontation could have tied up the theme more satisfactorily if there had been more to it. Aside from this stumble, Paper Bag Princess is an amusing little amuse bouche. I hope the author enters again next year. I’d like to see what she could do with something a little more meaty.

Oh hey, we’ve got a for real CYOA here. It’s made in Twine, but doesn’t take advantage of in-text hyperlinks or dynamic text or anything. Just simple straightforward links to new paragraphs. There’s some fancy amenities like new paragraphs fading in when a choice is selected, or the option to save your current place, but Blood on the Heather could be published in a real-life book and I’m appreciative of that.

As for the story, well… it’s not bad. It has actual characters and plot, which is more than I can say for the previous two entries. The construction is clumsy though, on both the sentence level and in the overall structure. Awkward phrasing abounds, there’s frequent tense changes, there’s lots of “wacky” humor that comes off as hackneyed, and several times new paragraphs assumed I had learned information that I had not previously been presented with. If you’re writing a CYOA you’ve got to make sure that each path plays out logically. This entry is more focused on story than a typical piece of Interactive Fiction, and so the story needs to be strong enough to carry the load. It’s almost there (personal opinions on urban vampire fantasy aside) but it needs at least another revision to polish the text, and the various paths through the story need careful attention to ensure they all flow cleanly.

The story is long and the different paths through the book are divergent enough to justify being a CYOA. I’m all for innovation in the Comp but it’s nice to play something so old-school. And after the previous entries it’s nice to play something with some meat on its bones. It just needed to stew a little longer.

A dead body floats down a river into the heart of an infuriating small town. As the locals grapple with the murder, they must also contend with the breakdown of cause-and-effect and the realization that the world is not for them anymore.

But no, instead it’s a tone piece of the sort that seems to excel in Twine (at least, in my limited experience with the platform). I can’t say I quite penetrated what was going on. There might have been a body in a river, though I can’t say for sure. I have no idea what “the breakdown of cause-and-effect” is referring to other than existential vagueness. Plenty of that to go around. Still, the writing is good: moody and full compelling imagery. The game was captivating in the playing and there are some neat little moments, like the description of the radio updating in real time, or fast-forwarding through the mix-tape. However I’m in no hurry to dive back in to search for hidden meanings or even to suss out a plot. Vulse is entertaining in the moment but lacks staying power.

An inauspicious start to the nineteenth annual Interactive Fiction Competition. N.C. Hunter Hayden says that A Wind Blown from Paradise is his first game, and judging from the criteria it could be worse. But what we’ve got here is slight and unpolished. In the game you wander nearly identical subways either dwelling on or turning away from images of a beach vacation. In doing so, Hayden claims to explore the ramifications of dwelling on the past rather than being present in the moment. It’s all a bit too on the nose and lacking in depth. I feel like the idea would have sat better within the framework of a larger narrative. Being plopped right into and asked to consider the ramifications is just to obvious to be affecting. The overwrought prose doesn’t help either, though I did like the description of sand as a million hot suns.

While the theme is too obvious the necessary actions are anything but. I had to look up the in-game hints before I realized that “dwell” and “turn away” were performable actions, let alone the crux of the game. And then I was under the impression you had to turn away from a vision to return to the subway. When that didn’t work I assumed the game was bugged. It wasn’t until I consulted the walk-through that things became clear. These kind actions should be implied. As it stands the game is just too cryptic, despite its simplicity.

Sorry, N.C., I have a heart, I do. But this game just isn’t up to competition standards. A little more polish and a lot more playtesting could have made it more viable. Also, exchanges like

>get on train

The train isn’t here, idiot.

don’t endear you to the player. I think I understand what you were going for, but it doesn’t match the tone of the rest of your game and comes off as insulting.